The United States has imposed punitive sanctions on Cuba for around 40 years, and

Bush is the latest of 10 successive US presidents to openly seek to overthrow the Cuban government.

However, Cuba says US hostility does not stem from its government's

human rights failings, but rather from its social and political successes and unyielding independence.

Cuba has achieved first world health and education standards, and its infant mortality and literacy rates now rival or outstrip those of the US, while its class sizes are a third smaller than in Britain.